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Major travel headaches ahead for the holidays


Brad Rousseau
Meteorologist

Thursday, December 14, 2017, 3:07 PM - As we head into the holidays we will be watching for what looks to be an active pattern setting in across the northeastern part of the continent. The core of the arctic air will start to retreat northward and then back to the west this weekend into early next week. This will allow temperatures across the east to trend back to near seasonal. 

Heading into mid to late next week and into the holiday period, the core of the cold will start to settle southward across the central portions of the continent and gradually push back eastward. In response to this, an active storm track will develop across the south central and Midwest U.S., and up through the eastern half of the country.

What this means exactly in terms of the dominate precipitation type is to early to tell. The main thing to focus on for now is this is a pattern favours low pressure systems developing along the lee of the Rockies through Colorado and Texas. These lows track northeastward along the jet stream and bring with them ample amounts of Gulf moisture meaning a plethora of precipitation types. Given the right storms track, which is usually just on the southern and eastern edge of the Great Lakes Basin, these systems are ones that have the potential to bring significant amounts of snow and freezing rain potential across Ontario and Québec with a wide range of precipitation types for Atlantic Canada. This same pattern can also result in lows that track up through the heart of the Great Lakes Basin. These systems are ones that tend to deliver mainly rain through southern Ontario with a wintery mess of snow, rain, and freezing rain across central and eastern Ontario, as well as through Québec and the Atlantic provinces. Which becomes the main storms will depend on where the frontal zone sets up which will dictate the storms track.

Again, the focus for now is not who will see what, but rather the long trend pattern taking shape is one that will bring adverse weather conditions into the holidays. Meaning significant impacts on travel are likely. 

Heading into the end of the month and into the new year the core of the cold will continue to gradually shift eastward taking hold across much of the country. One difference is across the southern U.S. where the milder air is expected to push back north. This will act to shove the storm track northward through the U.S. The impact for us is lows will now push up and over the ridge through Alaska and the Yukon redeveloping as clippers. This pattern looks to maintain the central portions of the country as well as British Columbia under a much drier pattern with periodic bouts of snow across Alberta as system redevelop over the province. Across the Great Lakes and the eastern half of the country will trend back into a similar pattern seen this week (Dec11-15), multiple weak clippers with prolonged periods of lake effect snow. 

Watch below: A Christmas tree so big it doesn't fit in the frame





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